Emmie's First Legal Missouri 6 Plant, Organic, LED Grow Log

Some catchup stuff that hit the other site but not this one... This one from Dec 5:

I was just in my tent and one of my seedlings had wilted. Yes, I actually do let even seedlings get that dry. Note that the stem wilted all the way to the ground, but the leaves on this happy plant are not drooping... she just lost the ability to maintain pressure in the stem when all the water ran out. I just watered her, and immediately she started to stand back up... those are some strong roots already!

I have actually been trying to slow Wappa down so the others can catch up with her a bit. She is now 22 days above soil, compared to Jack at 19 days, and the youngest, Trainwreck a full 10 days younger at 12 days above ground. By putting up with Wappa yelling at me I have stalled her a couple of days but no one could sleep around here with all that racket going on in the grow room, and today I decided to up-pot her and Jack. Jack was just now using all of her water in 24 hours and still had shown no signs of rootbound distress, so today was the perfect time to up pot for her.
Let's look at the tribe now, with the two big girls sporting their new 1 gallon containers.
Wappa [22 days] and Jack Herer [19 days]

The new containers were both layered and spiked. The bottom of the container got a thin layer of supersoil and then a thin layer of a high Nitrogen mix

2 parts blood meal

2 parts high nitrogen bat guano

1 part feather meal

1 part ground oyster shell flour

and then a thin layer of 5-5-5 All Purpose Fertilizer.
Then i layered in about an inch of regular super soil and put the rootball on top of this. One Jobe flowering spike was put in the soil nearly to the bottom on the North and South edges of container. Now layering in a circle around the rootball I added an inch of fresh earthworm castings and then soil to an inch from the top. Another thin layer of 5-5-5 was added for the hungry top roots and then more soil on top of that to 3/4 inch or so from the top, where I will eventually put some bark mulch to protect the microlife and further the activity of the living soil underneath.
Next, at the East and West positions, again at the outer edge I poked a hole almost to the bottom and used a funnel to make a thin column of pure nutrient in a high Nitrogen VEG spike consisting of:

2 parts blood meal

1 part bone meal

1 part high N bat guano

1 part feather meal

1 part kelp meal

1/2 part oyster shell flour

The containers were then watered to runoff with calmag+ added at 1tbl / gal.

We are now 24+ hours after the up-pot on the two older ones and it wasn't long into before the screaming and complaining stopped and I could visually see that color was coming back into Wappa. She may still lose her first 2 true leaves, but they are on the mend too, so we will see. Her overall color has matched the others in the tent now and the two biggest fans are slowly filling back in with healthy green. She will be fine, but in this run she needed to become an example of being rootbound so as to slow her down a bit. We will get some more pictures of her in the next few days after she quickens up again... seems like its been forever waiting for her to start sending those lower branches up after the trim between nodes 2 and 3.
Jack had an interesting reaction to the new container too. She immediately felt the surge of nutrients and presented me within 6 hours with a clear "ouch" as she adjusted to what she was finding in all the layers. She too will be OK, she just needed to complain a bit, and I understand... life does that to us sometimes and we need to vent.
Do you see those tips pointing down to the ground as they burned up? She clearly has something to say to someone who can slow down enough to listen.

All of the girls have now achieved emptying the water I gave them, in 24 hours...
So today everyone was up-potted to 1 gallon containers. Several of them are going to require topping in the next few days. The 1000w LED has been carefully adjusted to 12" above the tops.
Here come a few more complaints about the layers and spikes... and then soon we should see a dramatic tent wide growth spurt!
The girls insisted on a group shot so they can say hi!

Two more trimmings {between nodes 2 and 3} this morning... Train Wreck and Super Cheese have finally elevated that 5th node up where it can be seen... and now this:
Also, no complaining can be seen from the others as a result of the re-pot into spikes and zones... it is only Ms. Jack who seems to be a bit of a whiner here... we will watch her closely for any further outbursts.

Thing are happening fast here... when I got home from work today the last two had stretched, and also popped their 5th... incredible growth in just 8 hours! So...
Ice Breaker and NYC Diesel just got topped too.

Wappa has turned into a monster, being the oldest one in the tent. Even though still complaining a bit about her previous treatment, she has been sending the lower nodes up to the point that it is time to deal with her. I have always called this quartering, but I have heard other popular names for it, but basically I use some metal planter wire to make loops that I can train the 4 main tops with. I have bent each of the branches down so the tip is lower than the center of the plant. This will produce crazy growth on all the lower nodes, and since the center of the plant has been opened up, all the light and air those little secondary and tertiary buds need is now available. Watch over the next week while 16 new growth tips try to take dominance and rise up to join the canopy.

Friday meditations in the tent:
The growth in here after the topping yesterday is incredible. Only one, NYC Diesel is going slowly, and she always has, but even she had significant growth in the last 24 hours.
The first task of the afternoon was to do some maintenance on Wappa's LST. Some of the branches that were not bent down all the way yesterday in fear of splitting the trunk were able to be put down another little bit today, the goal being to make sure the growth tips remain below the top portion of the plant.
[Note to my future self: from now on when topping, instead of chopping at the midpoint between nodes, go up to the top of that section right before the bulge of the next node, and cut up there. When you get to the point I am at now, starting the LST, that will make the top of the plant just a tad bit higher, making LST easier.]
I have not highlighted it yet, but a careful observer may have noted that in continuation of a long term experiment, I topped Jack differently than I did the others, topping her at 3-4. I have now proven to myself that this most commonly creates 5 main branches including the two nodes below the cut and also just one of the node 1 branches. One of those lower branches seeks dominance and the other sits there as if nothing happened, begging to be cut as a clone later on. You may say this is a good thing, 5 is better than 4... but a cut at this node seems to confuse the plant just like a FIM attempt... and this plant did exactly like her other participants in this long term experiment, she stopped growing for several days while sorting this out.
Only today was it clear that Jack was starting to open up and ready to grow again and like the others experienced a rapid growth spurt during this last 24 hours. In response, today I carefully put the first 5 hoops in to start bending those tops over to the sides. I guess we need a fancy name for this too, because if doing four is quad training, this would be pentagram training? Let's just call it spreading.
I have watered each of the first transplanted now... Wappa was a bit over 3 days and Jack being on strike was at 4 days. I expect a similar wet/dry cycle on the rest, and predict they will need to be watered tomorrow night or sunday morning. All of these events are written on my calendar. Good records are the key to knowing what your plants are doing.
I am going to prepare the next AACT tonight and it will need to bubble for about 3 days as I add ingredients, so I have plenty of time later to tell you about that. Tonight I am going to prepare a foliar spray. All of the talk about silicates lately has me thinking about the benefits to be gained there, and I also want to increase the brix level of the leaves as well as their macrobiotic level. To accomplish this I will be spraying the plants with a diluted solution of aloe vera juice, lactobacillus serum, and FoxFarm Big Bloom, one of the most beneficial organic products out there that is just teaming with organic life. Have I mentioned that organic gardening can be messy?

Today the 4 who were left got a proper watering, with some goodies mixed in. I added a tbs of Big Bloom for its microherd, 1/2 tsp of Great White mycorrhizae powder and 1tbs of calmag. All 6 plants will eventually be watered with this new solution, with Wappa due again maybe tomorrow and Jack the day after.
All the plants who had their top nodes staked out have almost caught up the lower nodes now... and after watering I figure another day or so before we do the full quad training on all the plants except one.
NYC Diesel is still moving slower than the rest and is not quite ready to stake out the top nodes yet. Her leaves are massive and thick and her trunk is enormous, the largest in the room, so I do expect a growth spurt out of her very soon. She just appears to be a little shy.
Wappa and Jack are pushing their growth tips toward the container edges and in a day or so I will start restaking them right at the edge of the container so as to send the main branch upwards, while carefully keeping two lower nodes horizontal. This should send up a significant number of those very lowest nodes to fight for dominance. Carefully, thoughtfully and methodically, I am creating the shape that I want to see in flower under these LEDs.

Tonight while meditating in my tent I happened upon a realization.
Two inches makes a lot of difference in an LED tent.
Before starting the LST training I had carefully adjusted the LED array to 12" above the tops of the leaves, and on 4 of the plants, those leaves are still pointing up toward the light and in pretty much the same vertical position they were in 5 days ago. Two of the plants however, Wappa and IceBreaker have become a little shorter after the LST, their dominant leaves being pulled down away from the light. It dawned on me tonight that they were now 2" shorter than the rest of the tribe in relation to the light whether it was their actual height or because they were sitting lower in the container.
What made me notice this was that Wappa and IceBreaker had seemed to slow down a bit... Wappa especially, now working on her 5th day between waterings and I think she could go for 6. The other plants are growing like crazy, and threatening to use all of their water in 4 days.
Hmmm.
Inverse square law... that 2" really makes a big difference in the PAR hitting these plants. Luckily those wide screw on lid plastic containers that you get from the dispensaries are exactly 2" tall. I have propped the two problem children up on these containers and now the canopy is again at an even 12". I need to be more careful about this... inches count.

I expect to see a growth spurt in both of the flying plants overnight.

Today was watering day! The plants have all settled into roughly the same wet/dry cycle now... approximately 3.5 days. I know that above I said that the plants had already accelerated to a 2 day watering cycle, but that was too early, and I knew it was a false reading. It takes a while to settle into a new container and with my use of layers and zones, the roots can be a little timid working their way through the entire space. This last cycle, those roots grew quite a bit and I am sure now that they have populated the entire container, top to bottom. They are not yet robust enough to cut down the timing on the wet/dry cycle, but that will happen quickly over the next week or so, especially after this watering. I will not transplant to their final containers until they can each demonstrate an ability to use all of this water in 24 hours or less. My plants are thriving under all of this abuse, they seem happy, and they are growing like weeds on a mission.

This tea was then strained, diluted and used to water and foliar spray all of the plants.

Training is going very well and even the youngest plants are responding now with vigorous growth from the lower nodes. The plan now is to veg for about 2 more weeks, moving them into 3 gallon containers as soon as they are ready. I am trying to time this along with the arrival of the new flowering lights, which I will likely purchase early this week.

Here are the girls, already having absorbed the foliar and are considering the liquid they have just been given that is teaming with life and mineral goodness... those microbeasties are having a party today at the roots!

Alright, it is 3:13am and I couldn't sleep because I had an important task to do. Sleep is eluding me... I have a flower tent to get ready to go and I need some more light.

I have been watching these new name lights, and all marketing hype aside, here is what I have just purchased. I got 2 of these so to be sure that there is going to be abundant LED light in this tent and between the two LED arrays I will be running a total of 600w of actual power from the wall.
Each light is as follows:

Each light will draw about 360w and will be the light equivalent of about 700W of HID. Two of them in the 2.5x4 tent will be overkill as one would probably be sufficient. These two lights will provide full coverage of every corner of the tent with no shadows and there should be full penetration of the canopy. This will be a true comparison of LED vs HID, watt for watt... Is LED superior? We are going to find out.
The best thing about this... I have bought 600w Hortilux bulbs that were more expensive than these lights!
The lights will show up on Jan 2 and they promise to make it an interesting 2019 around here!

Today I want to explain some of the advanced training techniques that allow me to create a plant that will veg for a month to a month and a half, will grow in a 3 gallon container, and will produce close to 3oz dry. Every day I am in the tent working toward this goal and it is my constant tinkering that makes this happen.
Up until the last few days all I have been able to do was to spread the 4 main growth tips toward the edges of the container. By keeping them low with LST techniques I have taken dominance away from the 4 main kolas, which has caused many of the secondary and tertiary buds to rise up to the canopy. Depending on where the plant is in relation to the lights and which growth tips due to leaves being in the way that can see that light, some of these growth tips try to take early dominance and become the top bud. In a long veg grow, as each of these became the tallest tips, they would also be bent over, in turn causing their 2nd and 3rd nodes try to rise up to the top, but in a short veg like this one, there is another quicker option.
Each time one of these middle buds rises up above all the rest and becomes dominant, it gets topped.
This not only creates 2 buds where there was just one, it also removes dominance which then induces even more lower buds to try to rise up. At this point, it is sort of like playing wack-a-mole, wacking off the head of each one that takes dominance. In just a short time, you can create a monster plant while keeping the canopy low and even.

Each main limb now has 2 hoops holding it in place and I have been waiting till now when they are mostly in their final positions before waiting this last week or so before up-potting. Today I added a thick layer of bark mulch to the tops of the containers. There are many good reasons to use mulch in your indoor containers. Having a top layer that protects the surface of the soil from the light and also retains a moisture layer, greatly enhances the microbiologic activity of the soil. I know some growers who even grow companion plants in the containers to provide a natural living mulch. I am a big fan of bringing the good bacteria and microlife out of the forest and into our indoor gardens. One of the easiest ways to do this is with bark mulch, and as long as you stay away from cedar and walnut, our plants love it.
Combining organic science with advanced container management, bark mulch protects from burrowing and egg laying pests, practically eliminates evaporation, makes watering evenly much easier, and provides a natural forest like protection to a living organic soil. The benefits abound, whether you are an organic living soil gardener or you grow in FoxFarms Ocean Forest.

I was in the tent this evening getting ready for bedtime by lifting each of my plants to see how close they are to needing water. It looks like the bigger ones are going to be ready tomorrow, the rest probably the day after that. Things are still accelerating, but slowly, as a result of the strong LST training and wack-a-mole trimming of the dominant growth tips, and soon as I start letting things go vertical, they should start using the water a lot more quickly. The new lights will also help and this next watering is going to be very nutrient rich...
I plan on giving them with the water, 1 tbs of liquid fish, 1 tbs calmag, 1 tbs FF Big Bloom and 1 tbs of Emmie's distilled Dandelion fertilizer. This feeding will be like liquid rocket fuel and we should see some immediate strong growth as a result. Remember: Think of nutes as supplements designed to put into hyperdrive an already thriving plant.

So with that, here are some shots around the tent to highlight these thriving plants. Their ages are between 35-45 days old. Please excuse the red light... Emmie is a tired girl tonight and was too lazy to fire up the white light.

Alright! These new 3000w lights are a bit bigger physically than the 1000w but not significantly so. There is quite a bit better footprint however as these lights are recommended to be hung at around 20" distance from the plants instead of 12-15... so for the moment only one light would be sufficient for the space these 6 plants cover right now in veg... but what fun would that be?
The first stop for these lights was at my test bench so that I could accurately measure the power they were using in both veg and bloom settings. Here are the results from my ammeter:

So, doing a little math, in the veg/full spectrum mode we are drawing 1.57amps x 120volts = 188.4 watts. In bloom/extra red mode she draws 2.29amps x 120volts = 275.8 watts. HID equivalent, by doubling these values and we get 377w and 549w. This is of course with each light, so with two of these, in veg we should have the equivalent of around 750w of HID light and in flower it will be around 1100w. This is the best test that I can think of to compare these LEDs with the two 600w HID lights I am used to running in flower... watt equivalent to watt.

Man alive, this is a lot of light, and this is just the veg setting! I suspect we are about to see a growth spurt. Several hours of this light so far, and no bad reactions at 18-19 inches away from the tops of the plants. I will check again at 1am, right before lights out.